Don Marsh

Host of St. Louis on the Air

David Kovaluk | St. Louis Public Radio

As the host of St. Louis Public Radio’s “St. Louis on the Air" since 2005, Don brings discussions of significant topics to listeners' ears at noon Monday through Friday. Don has been an active journalist for 58 years in print, radio and television. He has won 12 Regional Emmy Awards for writing, reporting, and producing. He is the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, was inducted into the St. Louis Media Hall of Fame in 2013, and named “Media Person of the Year” by the St. Louis Press Club in 2015. He has published three books: his most recent, “Coming of Age, Liver Spots and All: A Humorous Look at the Wonders of Getting Old,” “Flash Frames: Journey of a Journeyman Journalist” and “How to be Rude (Politely).” He holds an honorary Doctor of Arts and Letters degree from the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Encore Presentation: This program's original broadcast was on March 19, 2013.

Having existed and endured for nearly 230 years, the U.S. Constitution and the intent of those who created it continues to be a hotly contested topic.

On Monday's St. Louis on the Air during President's Day, host Don Marsh revisited his 2013 discussion with David Robertson, author of the book "The Original Compromise: What the Constitution's Framers Were Really Thinking." Robertson is a Curators' Teaching Professor of Political Science at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Used with permission from Yale University Press. From Eero Saarinen Papers Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library, Photograph by Richard Knight

Originally published July 1, 2013 — Author and historian Tracy Campbell views the Gateway Arch as an architectural wonder which draws millions of tourists to St. Louis, though he also argues the landmark is “an example of failed urban planning.”

To make way for the monument, nearly forty square blocks of riverfront property were demolished. The demolition began during a public ceremony on October 9, 1939.

City leaders only gained traction for the project once it was framed as a monument to President Thomas Jefferson.

On the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, we are sharing an excerpt from Don Marsh's book, "Flash Frames," about Marsh's experience in Berlin during the early days of the Wall and the height of the Cold War.

The instability in Ukraine has the world watching and waiting. Following Crimea’s return to the Russian fold, separatists in the rest of the country are demanding the same for the rest of Ukraine. The west-leaning government in Kiev says the separatists are Russian proxy agents. Russian troops are near the border, and civil war is threatened.

East St. Louis native Jackie Joyner-Kersee is one of the nation’s premier athletes, with 6 Olympic medals to her name. Sports Illustrated named her the Greatest Athlete of the 20th Century and tomorrow she will be inducted into the Hall of Fame of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance.

The Newtown massacre has been seared in our collective memory. Gun violence involving teens in St. Louis, especially teens of color, is among the highest in the country. The emotion in Roxana, Ill., after an April Fool’s prank this week put local focus on the issue.

From school shootings to drive-bys to suicide, the level of exposure children in America today have to gun violence is in the news and on the minds of many. Because of this prevalence, some health care professionals contend that it has become a public health issue. Among them:

On Tuesday, April 8, voters will take to the polls to elect board members for their local school districts. April elections, with their focus on local issues such as schools and municipalities, traditionally have a low turnout. However, the results of these elections have a big impact on people’s day-to-day lives, including the policies implemented in their children’s schools.

There is increasing concern about the status of two landfills in Bridgeton as a slow-moving underground fire in the Bridgeton Landfill edges towards the adjacent West Lake Landfill. Radioactive waste left over from World War II was illegally dumped at West Lake in the 1970s.

As part of the St. Louis Public Radio project "Accounted For," chronic student absenteeism was the focus of St. Louis on the Air today. When students miss more than 10 percent of a given year of school, they become chronically absent. Millions of kids across America fall into this category, and it is far too often a predictor of future failure on several levels.

Humorist Dave Barry has been making people laugh for decades. For 20 years, Sunday papers across the country carried his Pulitzer-Prize-winning humor column, syndicated from the Miami Herald. He’s also the author of a long list of very funny best-selling books.

The Missouri Supreme Court’s ruling on Breitenfeld v. School District of Clayton on June 11 reversed a lower court decision and found that state statute 167.131does not violate the Hancock Amendment. The statute provides that an unaccredited school district must pay tuition for students to attend school in another accredited district in the same or an adjoining county.

Colleen Kelly Starkloff has been on the forefront of the disability rights movement ever since she met her late husband, Max Starkloff, in the nursing home where he was confined due to a disabling car accident. Still a young man, Max was determined to live independently and help others in his situation do the same.

When Aimee Wehmeier took the helm of Paraquad this past January, she was only the third CEO in the organization’s four decade history. Born with Muscular Dystrophy, she has used a wheel chair since the age of four and even served for a number of years as the MDA St. Louis Poster Child. At age eighteen, she was able to go to school in Columbia and live independently for the first time. She feels that her life epitomizes the story of Paraquad, one of the country’s largest and oldest centers for independent living and is in awe of her new position.

Some of the most important decisions one can make in life are about death. They are legacy decisions which require advance preparation about how end-of-life wishes should be carried out.

Many of the decisions involve terms such as probate, will, trust, medical directive and power of attorney. According to Stephanie Payne and Melissia Riddle roughly 70 percent of the population does not have all of their end-of-life paperwork in place.

Modern medical science has brought us closer than ever to the so-called Fountain of Youth. Advances in our understanding of what it takes to live a lengthier and happier life have allowed us to do just that.

Host Don Marsh talked with Dr. John Morley, Director of the Division of Geriatric Medicine at Saint Louis University.

Among other things, they discussed work Morley recently authored about everyone older than seventy getting screened for frailty, a problem that affects between 5 and 10 percent of those in that age group.

Dan Parris believes that filmmaking is a great activity because it incorporates every kind of art. He shares his passion for film with high school students in his role of Project Director for Pentimento: The St. Louis Story Mapping Project. An initiative of the Midwest Center for Media Literacy in cooperation with Speakup Productions and Studio STL, the project enables inner city high school students to learn the art and business of filmmaking.